BOZEMAN — Big Sky Conference Kickoff media day was Monday and Montana State football starts practicing next week. For head coach Brent Vigen, there’s a lot of excitement, but also uncertainty.
“The fact that we haven’t played since (2019) there’s certainly a lot of excitement, there’s a lot of hunger," said Vigen. "I hate to say there’s a little bit of uncertainty where guys are at too. Any time that you haven’t played against another colored jersey in a long time, there’s some unknowns that go along with that just how guys will perform on that stage.”
When the Bobcats walked off the field after the Sonny Holland Classic this spring, Vigen had one big message for his team.
“(I) charged the guys with, ‘hey we need to walk on that field in August and be a better football team made up of obviously improved individuals,'" he said. "Anxious to get there and see where we’re at.”
The new head coach highlighted how the team was able to get a lot of work in this summer with Sean Herrin the new Director of Football Strength and Conditioning, but also how his team is coming together as a unit.
“Just bringing our team together more from an accountability perspective, leadership perspective," said the first year head coach. "I think all those intangible elements that are so valuable and typically learned outside the parameters of what were around them.”
Now almost six months into the job, Vigen is learning the tricks of the trade as a head coach. Which means less behind the scenes work like he had at Wyoming and North Dakota State, he’s now front and center.
“That position where the buck stops with you is different," Vigen said. "I think no matter what that means, that’s off the field stuff, engaging with our fans, getting across the state with boosters. Those are all new parts of the job.”
The Bobcats begin practice on August 6 and the first week is solely focused going back over the schemes and sorting through position battles.
“We’ll shift gears to Wyoming at some point through the fall (camp), but those first couple of weeks will be fundamentally based," he said. "We still have some competition position battles going on, so you want to let that sort itself out. You want to see your incoming guys who make an impact and I do think we’ll have a few of those guys. There’s a couple weeks worth of work that is going to be focused on the Bobcats versus the Bobcats."
